Incumbent Rep. Silvestre Reyes was heavily criticized by challenger Beto O'Rourke Monday as the three announced Democratic congressional candidates engaged in their first debate in anticipation of the March primary.

Reyes, facing his first serious challenge since being elected in 1996, largely stayed away from criticizing his opponents, choosing instead to focus on the value his experience and seniority brings to Texas' 16th Congressional District.

"I've got a track record that I'm proud of. I'm a Democrat, I've worked with the party, I've been a major influence every election cycle," Reyes said at the debate at the Polly Harris Senior Center, sponsored by the Westside Democrats.

About 100 people attended the 7:30 a.m. debate, which featured Reyes, former city Rep. O'Rourke, and educator Jerome Tilghman.

O'Rourke criticized Reyes' record on veterans issues and the economy, at one point saying the incumbent and his staff were "out of touch" on veterans issues and didn't recognize problems with quality of health care available to the region's veterans. Reyes said he responded aggressively in 2008 when problems became evident at El Paso's Veterans Affairs clinic.

The sharpest exchange between Reyes and O'Rourke came over the incumbent's vote earlier this year to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. O'Rourke said that would make it harder for low- and middle-income women to seek cancer screenings.

Reyes responded: "You should focus on learning the system and not worry about taking on a load for me because I can speak for myself."

The incumbent said as a Catholic he opposed abortion, but said he approaches votes on an issue-by-issue basis.

Tilghman, who hasn't reported raising or spending any money on his campaign, drew little attention from the other two candidates.

In his remarks, he said he would "even talk about elimination" of the U.S. Department of Education, a position advocated by many conservative Republicans but opposed by most Democrats in Congress.

He also said he would support U.S. military intervention in Mexico.

"I think that in one comment that the congressman made, when he said we cannot go into a country like Mexico, alluding to possibly invading, and I simply say that in special operations you don't have to have that large of a footprint. But if we're willing to go into Pakistan to deal with a guy called Osama bin Laden, without anybody's permission, if we see a national threat we don't need to have a consensus of nations to determine how best to address that if we feel we could do it right away," Tilghman said.